Learning Through Play

Activities in preschool

Child well being:

At Norland preschool, the child's well being comes before anything. We begin our journey with an All About Me form to get to know the child better, how they settle, and how they play and explore. We encourage settling in sessions to trial time away from parents and carers before their starting date, your child will be allocated a Key person who will give the child an adult base to gain support from. The key person is someone who will provide child led experiences catered for their key child, they will offer support and a warm and welcoming presence as well as getting to know the child and their family, they will help support the child through their pen personal growth and development and track this in the child's learning journey file. In preschool the children learn about friendship, caring, sharing, fairness, equality and love as the key ingredients to healthy and happy relationships. They can apply what they learn from out play in the Role Play are; an area that changes with the seasons and offers a space to explore scenes from home. 

Environment: 

Our preschool room gives the children autonomy of choosing their own activities, and discovering how they prefer to learn, be this sat at a table, on a rug on the floor, standing at a tuff tray or being underneath/ enclosed in a den style space. Offering open shelves with access to resources and activities that children can use to enforce their play. we also offer open access to our art space, artistic expression communicates something about children's 'self', their preferences, interests, feelings, own experiences and choice. 

Child Led Play:

We design a space with the children in mind to meet their individual needs with access to extensive resources, we are reminded that all children have their own unique experiences and it is our role to extend those experiences and give them access to a a broader world. Child-initiated play has an important role in children's learning and development. It gives the children the space to be creative with what they do and drive their own exploration.

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Water: The children are given the chance to play with water and learn about floating and sinking, pouring, filling, emptying. Children learn to work out problems and to concentrate.

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Wet and dry sand: They learn lots of things about mathematics and science, such as pushing, pulling, emptying and filling and finding out what sand can do, i.e. pour, mould and build.

Creative area: The children get an opportunity every day to paint, model or draw. Your child will be learning to make marks, choose and mix colours, use scissors and make something that is their own work. Sometimes the activities will require adult help, but the main thing is if your child has had a go and enjoyed the activity.

Role-play: Children love to try out what it feels like to be different people or animals. Pretend play helps children come to a compromise, act out situations, use imaginary talk and introduce narratives into play. The home corner is changed every half term to offer the children a variety of situations.

Construction: The children are given chance to make models with bricks, both large and small. Building is fun, but also helps them to learn about shape, number, space and balance. Children can develop their technology skills such as designing, building, making changes and recording.

Outdoor play: The children get a chance to play outside every day, weather permitting, so they always need to have a coat. It gives them chance to run, jump, climb, throw and pedal, as well as the opportunity to observe changes in the weather and the environment.   

Dancing/Singing/Story time: The children are given the opportunity to listen and respond to a range of music and to try out different musical instruments. The children are also encouraged to join in with action songs and games. The children soon learn to listen and it also helps the less confident children to use a prop to speak. Listening to others and taking turns to speak are very important skill and ones we do encourage at pre-school.

Tabletop games: The children play tabletop games such as shopping lists, dominoes, shape and colour games and snakes and ladders. They learn to count, write and take turns to share. There is a good choice of jigsaws for the children to choose from too. In all these activities the children learn to talk and think, discover new things, solve problems, do things for themselves, plan what they are going to do next, concentrate on what they are doing and learn to ask for help when needed.